Gwen Stefani’s own brand of sexy-cool has made her a style icon. With her first solo album and a line of clothes she’s designing herself, Stefani races into the future. Here, the songstress talks about staying true to herself through the firestorm of fame, her hope for a baby, and the real reason she wears those big, baggy jeans. By Susan Swimmer.

After years of fronting the Grammy-award-winning band No Doubt, Gwen Stefani decided it was time to branch out. She’s “on fire right now,” and who can argue? Her first solo album, a hip-hop inspired dance fest called Love. Angel. Music. Baby, was released in November 2004 and has already gone platinum; she’s just completed a European tour; the clothing line she designs, called L.A.M.B for short, is wildly successful; and a line of accessories and T-shirts called Harajuku Lovers – directly tied to her album – is set to launch this fall. It’s no wonder Stefani’s quirky sense of cool is now the backbone of her very own fashion empire – her sexy-sweet, gender-bending looks have inspired everyone from mall rats to rap moguls, changing the way the world thinks about style. For Stefani, life doesn’t imitate art, her life is her art.

Girly Grunge

By her own admission, Stefani’s look is an ever-changing obsession that started long before she made it to the top of the charts. “Growing up in Anaheim, CA, I always made my own clothes,” she says. “In the beginning I’d go to thrift stores, or places like The Wet Seal and Contempo Casuals, and try to find something weird. Then I’d take it home and remake it. I had a sewing machine in my room; it was the danger zone. It was, like, pins and needles everywhere.”

Stefani’s brand of girlish grunge developed a small, cult-like following among the Gen X-ers who loved Ska music. “My girlfriend and I went to every single Scars and JC Penney’s and bought out every single child’s extra-large T-shirt and tank top. We printed pink No Doubt logos on them and sold them at our concerts.” Stefani paired her T-shirt with super-baggy pants culled from the boys’ section of thrift stores, “because I never really liked my legs or butt,” and her fans went wild. By the time the band started to make it nationally, there were legions of Gwen-itators.

Searching for… Something

Looking at Stefani now, in the studio for Marie Claire’s cover shoot, it’s hard to believe it all started with something so homespun. She is surrounded by racks and racks of brightly patterned couture clothing, and her trademark platinum hair cascades in curls halfway down her back. Stefani wears big, baggy jeans, torn and faded to perfection, and neon-green bra straps peek out from underneath a ribbed white tank. As our talk turns to her career, Stefani’s near-encyclopedic memory of every look worn, every lyric sung, and every concert played, is scary.

I flash Stefani a photograph of herself with fuchsia hair, circa 2000, and her face falls. “My boyfriend and I had just broken up,” she says of the time she and now-husband Gavin Rossdale almost called it quits. “You can tell by my style that I was searching so hard. I was 29, and I was like, Fuck it, I’m going to dye my hair pink. And I had braces, the one thin I bought when I got rich.”

Stefani admits the drastic look wasn’t just about a breakup. After two wildly successful albums, expectations were high for No Doubt to hit again. “It was a really hard time for me,” she says now. “I thought, I gotta be someone, I gotta live up to who I want to be.” It was during this time that Stefani wrote some of her best lyrics. “I really define myself as a songwriter. It’s pure torture, but it’s magic when it happens. When I realized I could write songs, that’s when I discovered myself. Before that, I didn’t feel I was good at anything. I’m a very different girl now than I used to be.”

The Bindi Boom

Stefani says the girl she used to be had no direction. “I had a hard time learning in school. I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she says. She was taking art classes at a local community college, toying with the idea of working as a makeup artist, when the band got offered a European tour. Performing gave Stefani an outlet for the visual experimentation she loved – whatever inspired her got worked into her wardrobe – and she had an innate knack for clashing styles. “I went out with [No Doubt bassist] Tony Kanal for eight years. He’s Indian, and I grew up watching his mom. She’d get all made up, with her sari and her jewels on, and I thought she was so glamorous. I bought those stick-on earrings and started wearing them on my forehead as bindis.” When Stefani wore one in the “Just a Girl” video paired with sporty workout wear, it typified her fashion-blender sensibilities.

Girl Power

No Doubt’s popularity grew exponentially with each successive release, and Stefani rode the wave of huge sales and glowing reviews. When they released Rock Steady, their fifth album, Stefani says it was one of the best times in her life. “Our egos were gone,” she says of her bandmates. “We were just so in love with each other and so proud of the album. It was like, ‘This is crazy, how’d we get so far?’ ”

Stefani felt strong and confident, and the look she honed for the tour was a sort of edgy, sexy, urban chic. “I was inspired by a trip to Jamaica,” Stefani says of the mesh top she wore under a barely there bikini top in 2001. “I wore grafitti pants that looked like a mock-up of the album cover artwork, and I had just done this Pussycat Dolls [burlesque] show with these big ponytails, and I was like, I wanna do ponytails.” Stefani’s body, which she admits takes a lot of work to maintain, was ab-fab. “Having to work out sucks, but once you get me on the treadmill I’m happy,” she says. “I fight getting there, like everybody. It’s always been something I have to work and earn.”

Dream Dress

In 2002, Stefani married long-time love Rossdale ina traditional ceremony in London. “That was one of my best looks ever,” Stefani gushes. “I felt very beautiful. John Galliano did my gown. I talked to him on the phone and showed him pictures of things I liked. He sent drawings over, and the bottom of the dress was all pink. I was like, Is that a shadow, or is that really what he’s going to do? I never told him to make it pink.”

Stefani’s workload has been nonstop ever since the nuptials, and she credits her husband for “balancing me and reeling me in.” With a schedule like hers, it can’t be easy. “A great day for me is not getting out of bed,” she allows. “I like to see how many snack I can eat there, how many crumbs I can drop, and how many really bad TV shows I can watch. I also like the Discovery Channel, and shows about makeovers or babies being born.”

Clearly, motherhood is on her mind, and at 35, Stefani wrestles with the possibility of soon or never. “I’ve always wanted to be a mother,” she says. “I was hanging out with my nephew the other day, and he’s like a frickin’ Twinkie he’s so delicious. But it’s kind of not up to me. I’ve been on this journey, and I don’t want to be too greedy about what’s going to come next. I’ll be really happy when it happens.”

You Know You’ve Arrived When…

In 2003 No Doubt was tapped to perform at the Super Bowl, an honor she calls one of the best moments in her life. What’s more, Stefani shared the stage with Sting, whom she had long adored. “I actually met him for the first time when I was 16,” she says. “My dad worked for Yamaha motorcycles, and he got me backstage after one of the Police’s concerts. I was really fat and puberty-stricken, and my dad was like, ‘ Ask him for an autograph.’ So I did, and he was really mean. But I still loved him.” Stefani laughs at the memory. “When I met Sting years later, I told him that story, and he was like, ‘Oh man, I was such a dick back then,’ ” she says. “But he’s such a great guy.”

Stefani’s skyrocketing status opened unlikely doors, including Hollywood’s Golden Globe ceremony in 2004. “I felt very much out of my element there.I wore a very simple vintage Valentino gown, with my hair up in a French twist. The whole thing was inspired by Hitchcock’s Rear Window. I felt so sophisticated. The press kind of worked me over for that look, but then a year later they said they like it. Whatever.”

Stefani has learned to live with the bad reviews. It’s not like it ever discourages me from doing something I want to do,” she says. “I really don’t care what people say. If I followed what people said I should do, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

East Meets West

Stefani’s most recent style incarnation – sporty Lolita meets French maid – is actually her own take on a trend she saw in Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood. “I was really inspired by the kids there,” she says. “They were all about self-expression through fashion, and this whole ping-pong match between Eastern and Western and how we steal each other’s ideas.”

Stefani says the idea of adding four Japanese backup dancers to her show came to her in a dream. Studying a 2005 red-carpet picture of herself with the girls, Stefani is loving the poufy crinoline skirts paired with neon knee pads that pop off the page. I pull out one last photo. It’s a picture of a brunette Stefani wearing almost the exact same crinoline skirt, circa 1989. “Do you see that?” she squeals. “It’s like the same look for 20 years. That’s so crazy! I feel like I’ve come full circle.” And with that, Stefani disappears through the racks of clothes.

Her cutting-edge evolving style inspires fashion trends everywhere. Here, Gwen Stefani speaks candidly about her evolution from offbeat rocker to chic sophisticate, her introduction to couture and why John Galliano made her cry. By Phoebe Eaton.

Her eyes cast toward heaven in one of her trademark blessed-virgin-in-ecstasy poses, Gwen Stefani is feeling secretly jet-laggy as she mambos through Harper Bazaar’s photoshoot, where three security guards are on hand to monitor the glistening piles of jewelry that – these days – Gwen’s retrosexual looks seem to demand.

Her hair is definitely platinum, her eyelashes comb-ably thick and her mouth painted a subtle, meet-the-parents pink. As she dances to her first solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby, No Doubt’s 35-year-old lead singer-songwriter shows she still has those wicked washboard abs and hard-won tummy dimples that Pilates instructors like to refer to as Apollo’s belt.

Away from the camera, Gwen reverts to a delicate and vulnerable Fay Wray in the leathery palm of an upstairs couch. Hot coffee and Kleenex to dab away the sniffles are produced, and a man-mountain of a bodyguard (Gwen’s very own) lurks nearby. Gwen wastes no time kicking off her ’70s-style suede rock-chick mules so she can wiggle those gunmetal-gray-painted toes.

There is little chance to take a load off recently. “I’ve feel like I’ve been running and running for the past two years,” says Gwen. “But if I get excited about something and the passion comes over me then I can’t stop myself.” Growing up in Anaheim – whistling distance from Disneyland – Gwen was something of a tomboy, whose parents always helped their kids whip up some prize-winning Halloween costumes. Her father worked in marketing for Yamaha, but none of his four children was allowed to own a motorcycle. He did take Gwen to one of her first concerts: Emmylou Harris at the Palomino club.

Her mother and grandmother always sewed their own clothes, and it wasn’t long before Gwen was stitching her own midriff-grazing, suspender-dangling stage wear out of bras, balloon pants and kilts. Going to all those industry award shows at the beginning was a lot like getting ready for Halloween, Gwen once said, and there was something Kabuki about that early crop dusting of face powder, those ballpoint eyebrows and the gash of red lipstick. (She admits lipstick is the one thing she’d pack for a desert island – with a toothbrush and toothpaste.)

Why all the trowel-applied makeup? Gwen hired her first makeup artist in the ’90s, “and I thought, He is so-o-o-o talented,” she says with a musical giggle. (Even in the course of regular conversation, Gwen has a talent for holding a note.) “I was like, ‘This is great! Put on more!‘ ”

It was high camp, but it worked for her, as did the henna and bindis, the rhinestone-studded bra straps, the pizza-guy undershirts with camouflage boy pants and that black headband. Just like Madonna, Gwen has a talent for keeping her fans guessing. And just like Madonna, Gwen was determined to emerge from the chrysalis of her 20s as a fashion icon.

Right now, Gwen is genuinely engaged in L.A.M.B, her edgy clothing line stacked with wacky-waistline pants, Old English-lettered sweaters and va-va-va-vintage-looking halter tops and dresses. But it’s true there has been something of a glorious transformation. That can perhaps be traced to Gwen’s yen for the kind of longevity that making movies can only provide. “But, just to get a part, it’s so competitive, it’s crazy,” she says. Still it never hurts to dress for the job you want. Gwen credits stylist Andrea Lieberman, who collaborates on L.A.M.B, for escorting her through the looking glass to the loot to be had on the Paris, London and Milan runways. At last year’s Golden Globes, Gwen’s street style gave way to a vintage Valentino gown, and there would be more magic red-carpet rides in her future: Cast as Jean Harlow in The Aviator, Gwen Swans through an onscreen film premiere as if she had been born wearing diamonds, white satin and Leonardo DiCaprio on her arm.

But even as she got busy selling 26 million albums worldwide with No Doubt, Gwen battled her body. “If I had my laptop, I’d show you pictures of me in eighth grade,” she says. “That’s the fattest I ever was.”

Yoga didn’t do it for her: “I’m old school,” Gwen says. “I like to run around and sweat, jump rope, run three or four times a week. Before our greatest hits tour last summer, I started weights again. By the end, I got so buff, I thought I was a man!”

And now she’s even more buff than ever. One guesses her recent investment in the latest elliptical trainer – “Whooo-ooo! That thing is hot!” she says – is partly responsible. People are fixated on her incredible shrinking waistline and how they might replicate the feat, but Gwen says she’s tired of indulging the chatter: “I wish everyone would just shut up about it, but I understand why people want to know, because half of my conversations are about working out. You talk about it with your friends all day long.”

Fashion has also been propelled to preoccupation now that Gwen has more of a bank account to speak of. In her latest single, “Rich Girl,” Gwen fantasizes about cleaning out a Westwood boutique in her Galliano gown. The David LaChapelle-directed pirate-themed video was inspired by a Vivienne Westwood ad from the 80s. “I am a Vivienne Westwood maniac!” Gwen says. “She is so magic!”

Gwen remains big on the Westwood bustier, but it was Dior designer John Galliano who was drafted to create Gwen’s cream and pink wedding gown and her 2001 and 2002 Grammy dresses. She has called Galliano her muse and notes that they are both exercise obsessives. “John has a hot body,” Gwen observes admiringly. The first couture show she ever went to was Galliano’s. “I cried,” she remembers.

Someone at the shoot suggests that the music be turned to something upbeat “so Gwen won’t get depressed.”

“I am not depressed!” she insists. Because of what appeared in recent papers, it’s easy to assume that Gwen is feeling slightly peaked. In October, tabloids snitched that Gwen’s husband of two years, Gavin Rossdale of the grunge band Bush, had fathered a daughter (now a teenage model) before he met Gwen. London gurgled that Rossdale had always denied any dalliance with the child’s mother, which is why Gwen is now believed to be, quote unquote, devastated. There were even rumors that the Gavin-Gwen merger was in trouble.

Gwen’s eyes drift when the subject of Rossdale comes up: “Anything you’ve read about Gavin is not true. I don’t even like to talk about him because I’ve gotten in so much trouble mentioning him in my interviews. Our marriage is so sacred that the idea of sharing it with the world, and people judging it, is just gross.”

“They are dealing with this between the two of them,” says a source close to the couple. “But it hasn’t ruined the relationship, ruined the marriage. Gwen and Gavin remain very, very committed.”

Once, after they had split up years ago, Gwen dyed her hair fuchsia. “because that’s what you do when you break up with someone,” she remembers, laughing. “I saw a poster of some ’50s girl with cotton candy-beautiful hair.” Instead, she ended up with a shade of flamingo she lived with for an entire year: Some fans had dyed their hair pink too, and she reasoned it would have been cruel to turn up at concerts with her old meringue hairdo.

“I look at it [now], and I go ‘uccch,’ ” she says softly, “but it so perfectly reflects exactly where I was, which was very unsure of myself. But if I you read the lyrics of that record [Return of Saturn, released in 2000], they are some of the best I’ve written in my life!”

Rossdale remains a constant inspiration. Gwen is always pillaging his closet, and it was he who turned her on to Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto, “Gavin’s got really good taste,” she says. “I try to impress, so when I go out to buy something, I think, Will he like it?” she says, “because you want to look for good for the person you are hot for.”

Right now is the first time in a long while that Gwen doesn’t see her future. Gwen does want kids, and the backbeat of her debut solo single, “What You Waiting For?” is a ticking clock: “Your moment will run out ’cause of your sex chromosome,” the song chides.

Gwen allows that having children might help restore some perspective: “I always say that my children are going to save me from my vanity.” But there’s some fear of the unknown, too: “It’s just like being engaged or married. People can try to tell you what it’s going to be like, and you can watch movies, but until it happens to you… I think that’s kind of how it’s going to be with children.” With a house on the West Coast, in Los Feliz, and one in London’s Primrose Hill – “I feel super-duper lucky to have both,” she says – there is now the necessary square footage in Gwen’s life. She considers this: “Having children is going to be my biggest collaboration ever.”

Blender joins the No Doubt singer’s court to find out about her solo album, movie career and love life. “Everything you could probably think up is true,” she says.

Gwen Stefani is dancing barefoot in her kitchen. One of the tracks she’s just finished for her first solo album is playing on her laptop, and she spinning around saying “I love this song!” while a small posse of assembled staff looks on: her publicist, her graphic designer and her British manservant Pete, who is juicing a lemon and preparing Stefani her light, fragrant lunch.

All around Stefani, in her Mediterranean-style Los Angeles mansion, are the lavish accumulations of the truly successful: a driveway crowded with Mercedes; huge vases of tall, perfect lilies on every table; two silent cleaning women fluffing every cushion and dusting every shiny surface; a parade of Herb Ritts photographs of Stefani with her shirtless husband, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale; and drawings by couturier John Galliano of the dress he made for her wedding, framed with a card from the designer that reads: “Dearest Gwen, Thank you for the most amazing evening.” Stefani arrived here from London just last night, but Rossdale had to stay behind. “We’re trying to get his dog out here,” she explains, “but it’s hard to get a private plane to fly a person with a dog.”

Stefani sings along to her song “Harajuku Girls” in the kind of mock pop-star voice one might use to croon “Like a Virgin” into a hairbrush. “I’m your biggest fan!” she squeals in perfect unison with her recorded self. And if Blender didn’t know that the woman bouncing and twirling about was the queen of this castle, that she and Madonna have actually “hung out several times,” that the voice coming from the computer has sold 26 million records worldwide with her band No Doubt, we might think she was exactly what she just said: a fan, a starry-eyed hopeful bopping along to the beat.

Blender’s Woman of the Year still has the giddy enthusiasm of a person who is surprised by her luck, even after 17 years in music, three Grammys and the launch of her own fashion label L.A.M.B, which Gwen-ishly stands for “Love Angel Music Baby,” also the name of her new album. Love Angel Music Baby will not only bring her another car or manservant, it’s sure to brighten the celebrity spotlight, as happened to Justin Timberlake when he stepped out of ‘N Sync.

But going solo is still a risk, a move away from a proven formula and out into the unknown. Just ask Mick Jagger. Or david Lee Roth. Or Al Gore. Stepping out – at age 34, no less – of the protective cocoon of a band that she has been in half her life requires remarkable ambition, power, balls. Gwen Stefani doesn’t see it that way.

“Everyone keeps calling it a solo record and I keep calling it a dance record,” she says. “‘Cause if I was doing a solo record, that would be like, finally, me… finally this is the real Gwen Stefani. It’s not that. This album is actually less of me than ever before.”

Growing up, Gwen Stefani never fantasized about being a rock star. Never pictured living the brilliant transatlantic life of pop royalty. The Gwen Stefani story according to Gwen Stefani, goes like this: All her life, things just happened to her. She is an accidental rock star – or at least she likes to think so, maybe because it’s true or maybe because lusting after fame and fortune seems unladylike to her.

And to be sure, Stefani has been lucky in one crucial regard: The men in her life have buffeted her from many of the uphill struggles in her life.

Her brother Eric founded the band No Doubt when Gwen was still in high school in Anaheim, California, and herded her into the band. “Eric’s the one who brought the first Madness record home and got us all into ska,” she says. “I’d wake up because he’d be banging on the piano. He would always be trying to get me to sing, because he couldn’t sing very much himself, and I could sing along to the Annie soundtrack or Evita.”

Gwen’s first real boyfriend, Tony Kanal, was, and is, No Doubt’s bassist and co-songwriter. Kanal has always handled all the wheeling and dealing and planning that are crucial, tedious busy work of any successful band.

“Tony took care of everyone and he was on top of all business,” Stefani says. “Nothing went wrong – no stone unturned, every corner cleaned. The opposite of me. I’m a mess!” (She means literally as well as figuratively: Stefani says that of all her indulgences, the one she’s most hate to lose is her cleaning women. “I get home, I drop.” She mimes throughing things in every direction.)

Stefani entered the band that made her a star when she was 17 years old. “I was a very passive girl,” she says. Stefani is perched on an immaculate, overstuffed white sofa, her white hair pinned up in a glamorous puff.”I was completely satisfied with just being in love with my boyfriend and dreaming about getting married.” Stefani didn’t consider herself talented. “I always considered myself as really lazy because I was bad at school…. Not that I was a bad girl,” she says quickly. “just that it was hard for me to learn. I couldn’t even pay attention, I spent the whole fuckin’ time drawing pictures. The bell would ring and I would be like, ‘Gosh the period’s over?’ I would have just written my boyfriend’s name in really sketched out, really nice letters.”

Part of the fun of being a No Doubt fan has always been tracking Stefani’s crushes and heartaches through her unusually transparent, occasionally, artless lyrics. Listening to a No Doubt song can feel like peeking into high-school journal: finding out on 1995’s “Sunday Morning” how excruciating it was for her when Kanal ended their romance; hearing, on Rock Steady’s “Underneath It All,” about how happy she’s become with Rossdale (“You give me the most gorgeous sleep/ That I’ve ever had”); or how badly she wants a baby on “Simple Kind of Life” (“I always thought I’d be a mom/ Sometimes I wish for a mistake”).

Gwen Stefani wrote that song in 1999, a couple of years after No Doubt and Bush were pushed together on a tour by their label, Interscope Records. Initially, everyone in the band was dead-set against the pairing. “The label was always talking about Gavin and Bush,” she says in the whine of a kid talking about history and math. “We were just like, ‘Whatever. We are not going on tour with those guys; that’s not who we are.’ And then we went and it was love. It was magic.”

Well, maybe for her. The rest of No Doubt were furious.

“Everybody was against it,” Stefani says. “It was a very crazy time. There was already my breakup with Tony, and we were enjoying success for the first time and having outside things come in to to our little band, our little family. And then I met Gavin. It was really lonely, because I felt like nobody wanted me to go out with him. My ex-boyfriend and all of my, like, brothers in the band were saying ‘You are not gonna go out with that guy!’ ”

Why not? “Because I had never been out with anyone else! And other reasons. Everything you could probably think up in your brain is probably true.”

Gwen Stefani started thinking about making a solo album when No Doubt was on tour in 2002 to promote Rock Steady. This was just a few weeks after she married Rossdale in London, went on a quickie honeymoon to Capri, then had a second ceremony in Los Angeles at the home of Jimmy Iovine, her boss at Interscope records. (“That dress,” she says of her custom-designed Galliano with a giggle, “was the whole reason I had another wedding.”) All four members of No Doubt were planning to take a break after the triple platinum Rock Steady “because we hadn’t had one in so long and everyone was burned out,” Stefani says, “Me, first and foremost.”

But the girl who had always worried about being lazy wasn’t planning on taking it easy. “I had so many things I wanted to do: the baby, the movie, the whole list, and the clock was so loud in my head!” Stefani says making her solo album was actually a low priority, but that once she put it in motion, it was impossible to halt. An all-star group of musicians and producers from very different genres came forward to collaborate with her: André 3000, Dr. Dre, Linda Perry, Dallas Austin, the Neptunes and Nellee Hooper, to name a few. And once she told the label she was interested in doing her own “side-project,” you can imagine their reaction. Gwen Stefani, the billboard-ready blonde with the crazy voice and the mad style is finally going solo? Ka-ching!

“As soon as I told Jimmy Iovine that I wanted to do this record, it’s been, like, his record,” she says. “When someone believed in you more than you believe in yourself, you almost want to do it to please them.”

“I would literally back her on anything,” Iovine says from his L.A. office. “Her vision is that strong, I use her a lot in Interscope’s business, the way I would use Dr. Dre: ‘What do you think of this? What do you think of that?’ ”

But when Stefani first started working on Love Angel Music Baby, she found herself – or cast herself – in a familiar role, as the subordinate: dealing with other people’s time lines, striving to meet other people’s goals.

“This is how crazy it was,” she says, tapping her feet frantically as if still buzzing with the pressure and the adrenaline of the whole thing. “The record company called me and was like, ‘You’ve got to go work with Linda Perry. Now. She has only five days out of the whole year to work with you.’ And I’d just got off tour! I was tired, I was burned out, I’d just got married. I hadn’t even seen my husband! But then I thought, OK, if I don’t do this now…. I want to do great things, and I know that I’m super-lucky?” she says in perfect so-cal upspeak.

“So I should just take all the opportunities. It’s one to have ‘Just a Girl’ on the radio, but to have years of cake and ice cream?” She grins and makes eating noises. “It’s gonna end soon! So basically, I cried in my bed, like, for real.”

“When Stefani talks, she actually does sound very much like that teenager who sings into hairbrushes and spends 6th period tracing her boyfriends name in curlicues. But it’s confusing, hearing this animated, teenybopper voice come out of the crimson mouthed woman who is so outrageously glamorous. She doesn’t wear clothes so much as she does costumes. Even sitting around the house, she has gold high-heeled Mary Janes and a plaid Vivienne Westwood top with a cape-like piece that she throws dramatically over her shoulder every 20 minutes or so.

Her assistant brings out an exquisite china coffee service and she takes hers with honey and milk, raising a tiny teacup to her lips with a perfectly manicured hand. “I feel so ‘lady’ now!” she says, beaming. She is not unlike the cliché of the platinum-haired silent-movie star who opens her mouth and spoils the illusion of frosty allure with her Betty Boop voice.

Only in Gwen Stefani’s case, the tears and the eating noises and the “rads” that pepper her conversations are a large part of her Valley-girl-next-door appeal. You can’t be too fancy when you begin your career with a bindi glued to your forehead or decorate your backyard with two intersecting green street signs that read “Gwen Drive” and “Gavin Way.”

“I’m gaudy and cheesy and I always want to push it,” she admits. “Adrian [Young] was always the yang of the band if I was the yin. If I’m the cheese, he’s the cool. That’s what makes No Doubt.” She thinks about it for a minute. “We would be like the most not-best-friends.”

The down side of all this guileless, youthful charm is that Stefani sometimes seems on the verge of drowning in her own adolescent securities. “I think Gwen is over-critical of herself,” say Linda Perry, who was the first producer to work with Stefani on her solo tracks. (Perry was the lead singer of 4 Non Blondes and then went on to write and produce Pink hits like “Get The Party Started” and Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful”) “There was one day where she had a little insecurity breakdown. But I found it very endearing: I loved seeing her that insecure. You meet a lot of people who have half her talent and the they think they’re God’s creative monster.”

Somehow, when Stefani tells it, she is, again the person who things are happening to, not the person in control. “At the Grammys, Linda Perry came up to me like a fucking bull dozer and basically put me in a headlock and was like, ‘We need to write some songs together,’ ” says Stefani. Gwen was accustomed to taking her time – sometimes years – to write songs with No Doubt. “It was always a long, hard process. So I was like, ‘I can’t sit next to you and pour my heart out. I don’t even know you!’ There was times I was just like, ‘Fuck you, dude, you’re totally stepping on my territory.’ Other times we were really inspired by each other. Linda and I had a meant-to-be thing that was magical. I get emotional about it,” Stefani says, and starts to cry a little.

It will probably come as no surprise that Stefani is big on emotion. She is also big on magic. With Pharrell Williams, she “wrote three songs in three days and they were all magic.” The Rock Steady tour was “so magic.” Shooting her cameo appearance as Jean Harlow in martin Scorsese’s upcoming biopic on Howard Hughes, her film debut, was “super-magical.” She had a “magical night” with Adrian Young at the MTV Video Music Awards in Miani. And recording with Andre 3000 was, you guessed it, “total magic!”

Despite all her breathless enthusiasm for the new pool of talent she’s been soaking in, Stefani claims she has no plans to stay solo. “No Doubt is definitely not broken up,” she says firmly. “I don’t even have plans to tour at this point; I don’t see myself putting out a bunch of Gwen Stefani records. Who knows? I might have a baby and just want to stare at it all day and quit everything.” She assesses her time with No Doubt thus far like so: “To be able to put that many years into one project? It was magic.”

Back in her capacious, green tiled kitchen Stefani plays a few more of her new tracks for Blender, and one in particular stands out: a heart-melting ’80s-ish pop song called “Cool” that she wrote with Dallas Austin. She sings “After all the obstacles/ It’s good to see you now with someone else/ It’s such a miracle that you and me are still good friends/ After all that we’ve been through/ I know we’re cool.”

Sounds personal. Is it about anyone in particular? Any bassist in particular?
“It reminds me of the ending of something… that place we are with the band. Like, how every thing’s cool no matter what and we all know it,” she says and looks at her feet. “And other things you can probably pick up on.”

Blender wonders if all this isn’t a little weird for her husband: having a super famous wife who’s till intensely enmeshed with an ex boyfriend, an ex she’s written whole records about, an ex who’s produced several tracks on her solo album, an ex on whom she still depends (“Doing this on my own there’s this whole pile of things where you go, ‘Frick! Where’s Tony?’ “).

Stefani won’t get specific about it. But she does admit that working out without No Doubt on this record has made it possible for Rossdale to contribute more to her music.

“It’s one thing to be in a band with all these guys, and obviously Gavin’s not gonna offer much of an opinion.” she says. “But when I’m on my own, we can talk even more, he can have more of an opinion. It’s been really… romantic.”

For the first time, Rossdale wrote some lyrics for one of Stefani’s songs, a track called “The Real Thing.” It’s so clear the lines that he wrote because they’re so visual and mine are always so obvious,” she says. “Like, just how you would talk it.”

Their second wedding anniversary, on September 14, just passed. “We haven’t done anything yet because he’s in London, but when he gets here I’m sure we’ll make out or something.”

For all her insecurities, Stefani is refreshingly proud of this album. She fully expects 7th graders to be slow dancing to “Cool” and requesting it – begging for it – at make-out parties.

“That,” she says, “would be so perfect! The thing about my record is you can try not to like it. You can try. But you know what? It’s gonna be your guilty pleasure. I just know it!”

All about my year: Gwen Stefani

No band mates were consulted in the answering of this questionnaire!

Best song I heard in 2004
OutKast’s “Hey Ya!”

Trend I’m most sick of
Reality television.

Sex symbol of 2004
Beyoncé

Most expensive purchase of 2004
A Vivienne Westwood shopping spree.

Most rock-star moment of 2004
Every day felt like a rock-star day.

Where I’ll spend New Year’s Eve
At my house in L.A. with 300 people dancing to my record.

Equal parts punkette and starlet, gwen Stefani is about to go super-stellar. Scorsese’s new star and pop’s hottest hybrid, she’s far from just a girl, says Charlotte Sinclair. Photographs by Lorenzo Agius. Styled by Andrea Lieberman.

Gwen Stefani is half way through our cover shoot when there’s a security breach at the country house that’s serving as our location. While on a tour of the building, a group of blue-rinsed ladies stumble into the music room where Gwen is being photographed. If the peroxide blonde with flowers in her hairs stirs recognition in the octogenarians, it probably owes more to their memories of Forties starlets than any familiarity with the sexy, stylish, stiletto-wearing tomboy who fronts the Californian rock band No Doubt. Gwen is non-plussed, and smiles graciously, arching a perfectly penciled eyebrow at the group as they are ushered outside outside onto the lawn, their chorus of interest (‘Goodness, wasn’t she pretty?’ and ‘Who was that?’) drifting in through the open window as the shoot resumes. The renegade OAPs could be forgiven for their ignorance, but Gwen Stefani – whose currency as a bona fide rock chick, fashion icon and budding actress is already soaring – is about to hit the big time.

A few days previously, I was led into a closed room as St Martins Lane hotel to listen to exclusive tracks from Stefani’s new solo album, Love Angel Music Baby. The clandestine circumstances say much about her exalted status. With the kind of secrecy usually reserved for top-selling global artists such as U2 and Madonna, I was allowed only a supervised listening of three of Stefani’s new tracks, the words of which I had to frantically scribble down before the lyric sheets were snatched back at the end of the session. There was no question of taking the CD home. The album is her ’side project’ – her first record without the No Doubt boys (ex-boyfriend and bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont, and drummer Adrian Young). As well as representing her solo debut, it marks her initiation into a more mainstream sound.

‘I had a very clear idea of the kind of record I wanted to make, as far as style and sound goes,’ says Stefani later. ‘I wanted to sound like Prince, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam and Club Nouveau.’ But the change in direction is not a snub to No Doubt’s sound. ‘It’s not like, “Gi, I’m Gwen Stefani and this is me; these are my true feelings because I’ve been compromising all these years,” ‘ she says. ‘That was the true me the whole time.’ The songs, upbeat dance tracks with a strong Eighties influence and plenty of attitude, include her first single, ‘What You Waiting For?’, produced with Linda Perry (who has written songs for Christina Aguilera and Cortney Love), and ‘Bubble Pop Electric,’ a frenetic beat-filled track produced with Andre 3000 of OutKast. The Neptunes, Dr Dre and New Order are among other collaborators. Gwen’s voice switches from a tremulous vibrato reminiscent of Kate Bush in ‘Cool’, a wistful song about past love, to a throaty Debbie Harry growl for such lines as ‘I’m itching, wish you could come and scratch me’ in ‘Bubble Pop Electric’.

Stefani’s half-street, half-sweet image reveals the contradictions in her. With an English husband (36-year-old Gavin Rossdale of the rock band Bush), a Primrose Hill pad whose elegance equals her own, and wholesome moral principles, commited Catholic Stefani has a classic, ladylike appeal. But equally, she’s a down-and-dirty riot-grrrl from Anaheim, CA, who has spent the past 17 years playing with the boys and sporadically dying her hair blue. ‘Being a girl in a band,’ she explains, ‘means that I want to do my own hair and wear cute clothes – but, when I get on stage, I want to rock out.’

Gwen has garnered a solid fanbase with No Doubt (with whom she has sold more than 25 million records and won three Grammys), but this temporary break from the band, plus her designs for burgeoning clothing line L.A.M.B, and a small but potentially career-break acting role as Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, mean that everyone is watching Stefani now. As Missy Elliot, with whom she performed at the 2004 Brit Awards, says: ‘When Gwen does this, it’s not going to be just another record; it’s going to be an event.’

However, if she’s feeling the pressure, it’s not showing. It’s a yawning, sleep-fogged Stefani who walks into the old manor-house for our shoot. Pushing open the huge oak doors into the Tudor hallway, wearing a white tracksuit and trainers, she says in her surprisingly little voice: ‘This place is ridiculous!’ ‘Ridiculous’ and ’sick’ (Californian teen patois for fabulous) are trademark Stefani words that, sprinkled into conversation along with ‘dude’, ‘crazy’, and ‘magic’, make her sound younger than her years. She is someone who is visually defined by her make-up – the indelible slash of red lipstick, the long black Cleopatra kohl line on her eyelids – so her bare face comes as a shock. She stands in the dim and dusty hall, her skin clear and almost translucent, and her face dominated by huge brown eyes. A sliver of her famous washboard stomach flashes at her waist as she pushes away a strand of white-blonde hair from her eyes. ‘She ruined her hair on tour with bleach and hair pieces,’ says her stylist and friend Andrea Lieberman. You’ve got to admire Stefani’s commitment to peroxide. She even dedicated a song to her ravaged locks on No Doubt’s last album (the dancehall-influenced outrageously catchy Rock Steady), called ‘Platinum Blonde Life’: ‘I want a platinum blonde life/So I keep bleaching out the color.’

Against the back drop of faded glamour, Gwen plays the imperious and errant lady of the manor for the camera. She sings along to one of her new tracks, ‘It’s My Shit’, standing on the lawn in a floor length silver sheath dress.’ ‘Damn,’ she shouts over herself. ‘This song doesn’t match my dress.’ Stefani plays her part with élan, at one point standing in a revealing silk basque, throwing her head back, her hand on her forehead in mock faint, as 16 spectators look on. ‘Oh my God!’ she yells cheerfully on seeing the Polaroid. ‘Dude, I look like a mannequin. I had to wear this dress yesterday that was so tight my kidneys were squashed to hell,’ she adds. ‘It was amazing.’

Gwen Stefani has been experiencing a renaissance over the past couple of years. At 34 years old, she has become the kind of celebrity whose presence in the front row of a show lends instant kudos to the designer; gossip columnists adore her. At a time when Chloë Sevigny and Sarah Jessica Parker are revered for their offbeat fashion sense and quirky looks, it’s no wonder that Gwen, who can carry off dancehall-inspired ragga wear and Louis Vuitton prom dresses with equal ease, has become a style leader. And all without losing a shred of musical credibility. A collaboration with Moby, the ghetto-fabulous parody ‘South Side’ brought her to a new dance audience in 2000. Moby said: ‘She’s incredibly technically proficient and just a really remarkable singer.’ And last year’s hit, ‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’, produced with rapper Eve, gave her approval with the hip-hop crowd, and further cross-genre appeal. The Eve video, the first for which Stefani used a stylist (‘Before that I always did everything myself’), also launched her new look: a slicker, slimmer Gwen whose colourful style had been refined with ‘that bling R’n'B lustre’, according to Danny Eccleston of Q magazine.

Sitting in a dusty armchair in an attic room filled, appropriately with vintage costumes, Gwen Stefani is voluble, launching straight into the story of her album. ‘I’m just going to go for it, OK?’ She is refreshingly honest and artless throughout, readily admitting her insecurities in going solo. ‘I don’t really know why I’m doing this record, either,’ she says. ‘I’m just as scared as the fans are for me, and I have been uptight about the whole thing. But I just want to do it.’ Stefani also understands how exacting her standards are. She tells me about a quarrel with Linda Perry over a song they wrote called ‘Wonderful Life For Him’ about Stefani’s first high-school crush, who died a few years ago. ‘I wasn’t finding the right way to say it, and Linda wrote these lyrics and it was the last straw. I was PMS-ing and just wanted to break out in tears,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘So I left and didn;t go back. But months later when I listened to the song again, it was beautiful – so I ended up recording it.’ She smiles, contritely spreading her hands.

A highly ambitious perfectionist, last year she launched herself into a punishing, itinerant recording schedule. ‘I wanted to take time off to get inspired but I was really feeling the clock. The ongoing joke between me and my husband,’ she says, rolling her eyes, ‘is that we went on vacation to the South of France when I got off the Tragic Kingdom tour. That was seven years ago. And there was our five-day honeymoon, which was the only other vacation we’ve ever had.’ And what of Rossdale? The pair met on a No doubt tour in 1995, when Stefani was 25. After a somewhat shaky courtship (during one break-up, Stefani famously dyed her hair pink, cut a fringe and got braces on her teeth), they married in 2002, once in St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden (‘by a Church of England vicar who was Gavin’s religious-studies teacher’) and once in LA; Gwen wore a John Galliano dress at both ceremonies. ‘It’s great to be married,’ said Gavin at the time. ‘It makes us feel our love is a lot deeper.’ I ask her how she copes with having a long-distance relationship. ‘For years, we were apart, which I think is a great thing when you’re creative people. Anything more than three weeks is really screwed up, and causes problems. But we know that it’s not going to be like this for ever,’ she says. ‘I think marriage goes in spurts. Sometimes you just can’t take it anymore and then, all of a sudden, you’re in love like you just met again.’ Babies are high on Gwen’s list, although when she will find the time is another matter. Fans have expressed concern about whether the couple will have enough time to devote to raising a child. ‘We’re just as worried about it as they are.’ says Stefani. ‘But it’ll happen when it happens.’

Stefani was born in 1969, into a musical family; her childhood memories are of her parents playing Bob Dylan and folk records. In 1986, she was asked to sing with her brother Eric and friend John Spence’s band, No Doubt. When Tony Kanal joined, he and Gwen started dating – he even took her to her senior prom. ‘My mom remade Grace Kelly’s dress from Rear Window for me to wear,’ she says. She has been with the band ever since. (‘I’ve been famous since I was 17 – I could go into Tower Records and be recognised,’ she says proudly, giggling.) But the band nearly collapsed when Spence committed suicide, and Eric departed. It was then that Gwen found her voice as a songwriter; in 1995 the band produced their hit album Tragic Kingdom, which sold more than 16 million copies. ‘Before, I was this Gwen, the little sister or girlfriend, and I was satisfied with that. I thought I could never have any kind of effect on anyone. Then I learnt I could write songs – I realised I had a talent and a power.’

This creative period also coincided with her break-up with Kanal. ‘Suddenly, I was this independent person who was happy and didn’t have to depend on my lover. Before that, I never really had anything of my own.’ The two have remained friends; the lament that resulted from the experience was the No Doubt hit ‘Don’t Speak’. Gwen really can write. Some of her lyrics are beautiful – for example, the phrase ‘Born to blossom and bloom to perish’ in Beauty Contest’. And with references to Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and Janis Joplin on No Doubt’s second album, Return of Saturn, Stefani proved herself to be anything but the dumb blonde.

It was the video for ‘Don’t Speak’, in which Gwen is seen moaning plaintively into a microphone, swaying barefoot in a blue polka-dot dress, that kicked off her reputation as a style leader. ‘I got that dress at a thrift store, five years before we shot the video,’ she says. ‘It smelled so bad that I never wore it. It’s a beautiful fabric, that really old rayon that just hangs beautifully.’ Her knowledge of how a fabric hangs is genuine. ‘It’s in my blood. My grandma made all my mom’s clothes, and my great-grandmother always sewed. Then, all through high school, and in the band, I made my own clothes,’ she says. ‘I used to make corset-style drop-waist dresses with a cheerleader skirt. Underneath I wore my boxer shorts, fishnets and Dr Martens. For years, though, I never wanted to talk about my style because I was more concerned with music.’ However, she now confesses that ‘the visuals on this record are as important as the music.’ She now understands the importance of image innately. ‘I had a very clear idea of how I wanted to look, and I prepared for it.’ She relates the story of her first ‘fashion moment’ with the gusto of a true addict. ‘I bought a Vivienne Westwood corset for $800 – with my own money – and wore it in a video. Then I got to meet her, which was like meeting the Queen. I was just like, “Aarrgh!” ‘

Stefani’s style aesthetic serves as a welcome foil tot he homogeneous Britney look predominant in the music industry. Gone is the unpolished grunge look; in its place is subtle overstatement with lots of colour. Knuckleduster rings and hound’s-tooth check culottes mix with McQueen gowns. Her body is taut and muscular, all traces of the ‘chubby child who had to join the swim team’ erased. ‘I’ve always had to work at it. I have a trainer, and when I’m at home I work out five days a week.’ Standing in a Dior dress with built in hips and a bustle, she says: ‘What was the point of all that dieting? On tour, we all went nuts. We were training all day and by the end of it I was like, “Damn!” I didn’t even recognise my own body. I just wanted to do the show naked.’ And does she feel the pressure to stay thin? ‘Beauty Contest’ has the lyrics: ‘How’d my vanity get such a mess/Reduce myself, I’ve got the strict restrictions.’ Gwen sighs. ‘Even if I wasn’t famous, I’d still feel the pressure because I think we all do.’

Doubtless, she forgives John Galliano for the extra Dior-enhanced curves. Her relationship with him is prolific, and culminated recently in Gwen wearing Dior in the video of No Doubt’s cover of Talk Talk’s ‘It’s My Life’, directed by David LaChapelle. ‘I got invited to my first Christian Dior show, and I cried,’ she says, slipping into ditsy LA speak. ‘I could not believe that someone made that look up.’ The respect is mutual. Galliano says: ‘She has a great energy. I love her personal style – she carries it off with such aplomb.’ Gwen leans forward conspiratorially in her chair. ‘I had John over to dinner the other night. It’s so weird; he was describing the whole couture show that he had just done and then today I’m wearing the dress!’

I ask Gwen if the white angora sweater she’s wearing is Westwood. ‘No, it’s one of my fall pieces. I think it’s gorgeous.’ She’s talking about L.A.M.B (which stands for Love, Angel, Music, Baby), the name of her fledging clothing and accessories line – as well as that of her new album – and yet another feature in her cap. Stefani clearly thrives on multitasking. Her design partner, LeSportsac’s CEO Tim Shifter, had his first encounter with Stefani at a Dior catwalk show. ‘Flashbulbs went off and the paparazzi started going crazy. At that moment I really understood what star she has. She is creative, full of ideas, and really has a sense of what her fans want.’ For Gwen, it is a far more selfish endeavor. ‘I’m not trying to impress anyone except for myself. I sit there and say, “What do I want to wear?” Then I make it.’ She giggles, as if she can’t believe her luck. L.A.M.B bestsellers include her punk-inspired bags with metallic zips. More than a mere vanity project, her bags are selling well. ‘For a while, I thought, “Why am I doing this? I just don’t have the time.” But Andrea helped me, and I’m going to keep getting good at it because I want to do it for ever. I’m not going to be dancing around for the rest of my life.’

An awareness of the limited longevity of the female of the female rock star could explain Stefani’s interest in film roles. ‘I’ve never acted but I always wanted to. I’ve tried out for films before [including Fight Club, Chicago and Girl, Interuppted], which is humiliating but fun.’ Having harboured a fascination with the Forties actress Jean Harlow for years, Gwen was ‘on the floor’ when Martin Scorsese sent her the script for The Aviator. ‘I was like, “You’re fucking kidding me!” ‘ she yells. Scorsese had seen Herb Ritts’ photographs of Gwen styled as Harlow, and asked her to come and meet him, ‘and dress like a lady’. The part only involved a couple of lines, but she auditioned in front of Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio, who plays Howard Hughes. Not bad for a debut. ‘I must have been there for about an hour, talking about the band and everything, and then they called, and I got it.’ Stefani considers it an auspicious start. ‘In the movie, Hughes gives Harlow her first role, in Hells Angels, so for me it’s like Scorsese giving me my first role… And it’s Jean Harlow, which is just so frickin’ weird,’ she laughs, shaking her head.

Stefani’s father, Dennis, in town on business, turns up to wait for his daughter to finish the shoot. As soon as he arrives, Gwen, standing the grounds in a transparent chiffon Lacroix skirt, starts to act the little girl. ‘I forgot to put my skirt on Daddy, don’t look,’ she shrieks. Between shots, she pleads with him not to read the gossip about her on the internet. ‘They even say I’ve had a boob job,’ she says, looking at her flat chest in horror. ‘You mustn’t read it Daddy.’ Theirs is a close relationship, and he appears quietly protective of her, despite her age. ‘I feel very stable because of my Catholic upbringing,’ Gwen has said. I ask Stefani Snr if his daughter has always been a star. ‘No, she’s always been regular. She never dressed sexy as a teen, not like Christina Aguilera. She had a ska tomboy look,’ he says. ‘She only got style when she started getting famous.’ He smiles, proving that celebrities have embarrassing parents.

For now, Stefani is happy – creatively fulfilled and settled in her marriage. She has even befriended fellow Londoner Madonna, although she doesn’t necessarily see her self as the same kind of feminist role model. ‘I always respected girls who were tough and could stand on their own. But I was making a stand. I was just a normal girl who didn’t know what was going to happen next; the normal one, over there, with the fat butt,’ she laughs loudly, pointing to an imaginary, plumper Gwen in the corner. The self-deprecation is difficult to accept from someone so assured. It’s far easier to believe the sass and ego of her lyrics in ‘What You Waiting For?’: ‘Look at your watch now/You’re still a super-hot female/You got your million-dollar contract/And they’re all waiting for your hot track/What you waiting for?’ Gwen’s face splits into a scarlet smile as she hears her own words. A super hot female? ‘Dude, you’d better believe it.’

A fashion label. A music career. A so-gorgeous husband. Welcome to Gwen Stefani’s world.

Picture this: You’re Gwen Stefani. You front No Doubt, one of the coolest rock bands in the world, and the guys in the group are so close they’re practically your family. You married Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale in a heavenly dipped-in-pink dress. You’ve launched a fashion label called LAMB that celebs are loving and you’re about to star in the Martin Scorsese film The Aviator. Can life get any better? Um, not really…

You’re known as a style icon. How did that happen?
When people started talking about how I dressed in the early days, I was always dismissive of it. If you’re in a band, it’s really uncool to talk about what you’re wearing. You just wear it. It’s [meant to be all] about the music, but obviously that’s not true. I do make a effort and I’ve always loved clothes.My mum loved clothes too and I think it’s in my blood. Every Christmas, my great-grandma would sew pyjamas, quilts and clothes for everyone in the family. I’d go to her house and her whole back room was full of fabrics. She would start on New Year’s Day and work all year long. My grandma made all my mum’s clothes. My mum didn’t even get a say in the matter. She’d come home and her mum would say, “Here’s your prom dress.” Then my mum made all my clothes. We’d go to the fabric store, look through the books and choose the patterns, the buttons and the zips. I love clothes and fashion – it’s an extension of my personality. It really isn’t important in life, but it’s fun.

Did you always love unusual clothes, rather than chain-store fashion?
I’ve always loved shopping and making my own outfits. When I was young and Mum said, “Let’s go to the mall”, I always replied, “Can’t I just go to the thrift store? You get really good stuff there.” I would buy the clothes and then alter everything on our sewing machine. My bedroom was always the one you didn’t go into – unless you wanted to get pins stuck in your foot. I was always doing projects and making my own clothes.

Have you always been close to your family?
My family is really tight. When the band started, everyone would come over to our house and Mum would drive them around. The Stefani’s were like the Brady Bunch. The day I got my nose pierced, we were playing a local show and my mum drove me there. We’re really close.

When No Doubt started, you were only a teenager. Did you make your own clothes then?
I’ve always made my own clothes. When we first went on tour, I sat around and made three outfits; they were Disneyland-cartoonish dresses. Then I got lucky, made more money and hooked up with a girl who made clothes for me. I could just call her, tell her what I wanted and she’d send me different fabric samples. So I’d be on tour and could ask for polka-dot pants in yellow and a top with black stripes. When you’re on tour, you don’t have time to buy clothes. Then I met Andrea Lieberman, a stylist who is so cool. She streamlined my ideas and improved them. I was blown away.

You have your own fashion line now, LAMB. How is that?
To be here talking about it is beyond me. I didn’t know what I was doing, but it was so much fun. I got inspiration from designers, stole ideas from everyone, and then thought, “What do I want to wear?” I started making clothes and doing drawings. I had so many things going on; it became so overwhelming. I thought, “I can’t believe I’ve done this, what a mistake,” but by then it was done. It was a distraction from my music, but I’m only trying to please myself really.

Lots of stars just give their names to a clothing line. Are you involved with design or do other do most of the work?
I’m involved. I could easily go out and make tons of money cashing in – trying to do something my fans could afford at Target – but I’m not really interested in that. I’m passionate about designing and find it very artistic. I want to do it for real and make a brand that’s going to last. I want something that well be there for my 15-year-old daughter. I love it so much that if it got taken away, I’d be so sad. I want to cry just talking about it.

You do some mainstream fashion, making LeSportsac bags. How did that happen?
They asked me to be a guest designer and I thought, “Why not?” I remember them from when I was a kid. When the bags came out it was weird. I’d see a girl across the street, owning her bag, but it was my bag, you know what I mean? It’s a bit of a jealous feeling but it’s magical that people like my bags and clothes. One thing that saves me from that jealousy is that I have them the season before.

What skills do you need to be a designer?
The whole collection, of course, is just ripping off everyone else. That’s what I’ve done my whole life in music, style, everything. I don’t care who you are, it’s all about stealing and borrowing from everyone and making it your own.

Who’s your favourite designer?
One would be John Galliano. I can’t even believe I know him. Vivienne Westwood is another. The first fashion show I went to was hers. Talk about stealing ideas. I don’t know where she stole hers from but her clothes are so wearable.

Why did you call your clothing line LAMB?
Lamb was the name I used to call my dog. Her real name was Marilyn – after Marilyn Monroe – because she had blonde hair, but it developed into Lamb because, for the past few years of her life, she always followed me everywhere, like Mary’s little lamb. I then started calling anything cute “lamb” and named the clothes after my dog who passed away.

Do you call Gavin “Lamb”?
Hmm, interesting. No. Lamb has taken on a whole new meaning with the clothes, so it doesn’t mean what it used to.

Do you have any indulgences when it comes to clothes?
When I go to London I splurge on Vivienne’s clothes and come home with bags full of them. I’ll buy whatever I can because I love her clothes and they fit me really well. She’s spectacular.

Are there any similarities between creating a garment and writing a song?
It’s the same feeling. You write a song for yourself, from your heart. I don’t sit there thinking. “What kind of song can I write for my fans?” I write my song and then it goes out there and people embrace it as the backdrop to their life.

What does the upcoming solo album mean for No Doubt?
We’re taking a break but we’re definitely not breaking up. I wanted to make an ’80s dance record with fake drumbeats, kinda like Salt-N-Pepa, and I couldn’t do that with No Doubt. I haven’t finished it yet.

What do you think of the constant comparisons to Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow and Madonna? Are they annoying or flattering?
It’s crazy but it’s not annoying. It’s amazing to be playing Jean Harlow in this new film The Aviator [which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. It's bizzare that I get to play the original blonde bombshell. She comes on the screen and she's a light bulb. Growing up in LA, I became really fascinated with starlets. My whole room was filled with Marilyn Monroe posters and I loved old musicals and early Hollywood. It was such a glamorous era. Madonna came out when I was at school and I was into other types of music. And admitting I liked a pop idol was not something I did very often. It wasn't until later that I really started to appreciate what an incredibly talented person she is.

Do you and Gavin hang out with Madonna and Guy in London?
Yeah. We've had dinner together and she's great. I like London. I get lots of attention and better tables in restaurants. I was talking to Madonna and she says she prefers her life in London because she feels more free. I know what she means, [In London] I get to have a break and have family time with Gavin.

Do you think you’ll get an English accent?
No. If I ever sound English, slap me.

Is your body natural or the result of grueling work-outs?
You want me to talk about my hot body? Before anyone has any ideas about me, I’d like to say that I have to work very hard to look as good as I do. I work out every day but wearing cute clothes is good inspiration. So if I want to eat pizza. I do. But if I want to wear cute clothes, I don’t.

Are you on a permanent diet?
I go through waves with food. I’m probably like everyone else. If something cool is coming up and I want to look good, I get into my healthy fitness rage and take care of myself. As soon as it’s over, it’s like “Hooray, let’s go get pizza.” I do whatever I want, I become a lazy slob and watch TV. Then I get motivated again. It’s the same old cycle and it’s the same for everybody I know.

Your busy with music, movies and the fashion thing. How do you find time to be with Gavin?
I make sure it’s a number-one priority. Everything else is second. Sometimes I have to say no to things because I want to be home with him and hang out. Relationships are work, like everyone says. You have to put the time in, but so far it’s been really fun work. He’s so talented, he’s good at everything and he’s an amazing cook – so I really scored. We have a great time together. I love being married. But I don’t have advice for anyone on relationships. If you read any of my lyrics you’ll see that! I’m finding my way like everyone else.

You talked about making clothes for your daughter. Are you planning to have children?
I hope so, sometime in the future. I do think about babies and kids. We really want them but at the moment we’re enjoying the marriage and being together without children. My life has turned out nothing like I thought it would. Things have kind of evolved. I believe there is a plan for me and it will happen.

No Doubt is on hiatus, but Gwen’s still busy. Her clothing line is gearing to launch this fall and she’s getting ready to work with DiCaprio and Scorsese. Is it still a Simple Kind of Life? by Kev Lewin

As a musician, Stefani has welcomed the evolution of the band’s sound while holding true to her roots. She’s a chameleon in the best possible sense. Her openness to collaborate has also been a part of her continued success. The L.A.M.B line of apparel is all part of the agenda.

There’s no doubt marriage has changed Gwen Stefani. Since saying ‘I do’ to Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale three times last September, she has put her music career on hold to concentrate on creating and marketing her unique fashion designs.

Fans of No Doubt may be in mourning as the Californian plans for life away from the group, but the fashion conscious should start celebrating as the style queen attempts to be the new Stella McCartney.

Stefani has a range of ideas she’s hoping to turn into must-haves-from handbags to wallets. Not bad for a girl whose strict Catholic parents made sure their daughter didn’t step out in anything even remotely risqué or eye-catching.

“My parents were very strict,” she said. “I had to wear white underwear until I finished high school.”

Nowadays, Stefani, 33, is all about color and setting fashion trends that thrill. After friends told her to make more of her crazy clothes and accessories, she started the L.A.M.B clothing line of sportwear with designer friend Andrea Lieberman.

“I’m so excited to be able to give my friends a pair of pants from my line and say, ‘They’re mine. I made them,’” she said. “I’ve designed tons of things for myself, but to do something for other people – that’s cool. I never thought I’d have an impact on anyone.”

The L.A.M.B name, which will be featured in bold old-English letters on her designs, is a tribute to her beloved late Lhasa Apso. The name is also inspired by her favorite words: lamb, love, angel, music and baby.

She admits working with Lieberman has really helped turn her crazy outlandish ideas into solid designs. Her line will hit stores early next year.

“She has totally streamlined me,” she said. “To me, there’s not such thing as too much.” John Galliano, who designed the wedding gown Gwen wore to ceremonies in London and Los Angeles, is convinced the starlet and her L.A.M.B partner are sure to become a leading light in fashion circles in the coming years.

“Gwen’s an old-fashioned romantic at heart with a love of breaking with convention,” Galliano said. “That’s good for fashion.”

As if to give the world a taste of things to come, Stefani has collaborated with LeSportsac to create a limited edition of handbags, purses, pouches, wallets and CD cases, which will be available online and at department stores from mid-August.

The accessories, with their eye-catching colors and Stefani’s favorite words “tattooed” on them, are sure to be the thing to be caught carrying this autumn. Stefani has even given her new bags a little rock star chic including some with woven guitar strap handles. She admits her daredevil style comes from a range of influences: her grandmother, ska music fashions, the Far East and vintage Hollywood glamour to name just a few.

Mix them all together and you start to see Stefani’s eclectic creations coming together. Her new clothing line does pose one big problem for the pop star – if it really takes off, will she ever be able to get back to the simple kind of life she once sang about?

Life away from the band has been pretty simple so far. She spends her days contemplating musical collaborations with the likes of Eurythmics musician Dave Stewart and Dr. Dre and enjoying married life. She’s even being considered for film roles after losing the chance to appear in “Chicago” to Mya.

Stefani has been linked to several projects, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s new Howard Hughes movie The Aviator. Director Martin Scorsese and co-starring Cate Blanchett and Kate Beckinsale, it’s a chance to impress in her very first film, where she’ll play silver screen diva Jean Harlow.

She insists she’s up for the challenge. “I’ve auditioned for lots of things, but always when the band was about to make a record or go out on tour,” she said. “I think that to do something like acting, which is so difficult, really well, I have to put all my passion into it. I’m ready to focus on it now.”

Stefani’s biological clock seems to be ticking pretty loud these days too – one of the main reason why a break from No Doubt was important to her was her keenness to become a mother.

“We’re taking a little break,” she said. “We’ve never taken a break before even and this is our 16th anniversary and this is a perfect time for the group. We’re starting families now for the first time and we’re enjoying taking a break. For me, I want to be a grandma. I love my 30s so far. I just want to live life right now.”

That’s not to say Stefani and Rossdale are already making plans for a child, but surely the announcement isn’t far away. “Maybe next year, we’ll have some babies,” she said.

Her bandmates couldn’t be happier for their singer. “She wanted to be a mom when we first met. She’ll make a great mom. I think it’s a good time for her to take stock,” said drummer Adrian Young.

Stefani also seems to be very in touch with her own sexuality – highlighted by her revealing outfits and her stint as a dancer with Hollywood burlesque troupe The Pussycat Dolls. Dolls founder Robin Antin is convinced the singer is “a child of the night,” who loves to be noticed – and she’s convinced her clothing line will help other girls achieve stunning results.

“She can stop traffic. She came to see a Pussycat Dolls show at the Viper Room in Los Angeles and she just loved it,” Antin said. “She was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is exactly what I’ve always wanted to do.’ So, we got her in the show one night and she was amazing. So sexy.”

Stefani admits it’s often hard to believe that she’s living the busy life she always dreamed of.

“It’s like a platinum blonde life,” she laughed. “Sometimes I have to remember to keep walking forward, becuase it all blows my mind.”

Transcribed by Tabitha for No Doubt Scrapbook. What a star!

Ms. Stefani is already a rock rebel, a girl-power icon, and a style star. Now, Lauren Waterman finds, she’s going for blissed-out bride, fashion designer, and silver-screen queen, too. By Lauren Waterman

Back when Gwen Stefani was just a girl, she never imagined for herself the kind of life she has now. Even though she loved Julie Andrews and Emmylou Harris and was, as she says with a perfectly straight face, “very affected by The Muppet Movie,” she never thought she’d be a performer. “I didn’t think I’d have an impact on anyone,” she says.

Gwen and I are sitting together at the end of a huge conference table in a back office of Orlando’s Hard Rock Hotel – she’s between stops on a seven-week tour with her band, No Doubt – and as she finishes her sentence, the door behind her swings open, right on cue. It’s the room service guy, bearing cups of English breakfast tea, and as if to underscore Gwen’s point, he immediately accosts her. “Gwen Stefani!” he yells, grinning from ear to ear. “Hiya!” He sets down the tray and, with little finesse, asks for four tickets to that night’s show. I’m rolling my eyes at this point, but Gwen graciously agrees. Finally her bodyguard rises from his seat on the other side of the room and subtly intercedes, taking the fan’s name for the guest list even as he ushers him out the door.

“See, I know everyone,” Gwen says with a little smile, delicately acknowledging her discomfort and at the same time brushing it aside. Whether or not she ever imagined herself in this kind of situation, here, for better or for worse, she is. It’s been like this ever since No Doubt’s ska-punk sound first penetrated MTV eight years ago. Back then, the cobwebs of grunge – the angst, the flannel – still clung, so a girl like Gwen, with her retro rolled bangs (inspired by her grandma), her bindi (borrowed from band mate and ex-boyfriend Tony Kanal’s mom), her punker pants, and her California-girl cropped tops might have attracted outside attention even if her songs hadn’t been up to par.

But, of course, they were – thanks to Gwen’s timely discovery of her inner pop star. “I was a very passive person groing up,” she explains. When Eric, the big brother she idolized, encouraged her to join his band, she did, not because she thought she could sing (she didn’t) but because “I did whatever he told me to do. I was never a leader,” she muses. “I didn’t need to be.” It was only after Tony and Gwen broke up and Eric left the band that she really started to find herself as a songwriter. “All of a sudden, it was like, ‘Where did this come from?’” she remembers with a laugh.

No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom went platinum in 1996, thanks in large part to the power of Gwen’s voice and her go-girl personality. And each subsequent album – Return of Saturn and Rock Steady – has only increased the band’s critical cred and popularity. “It’s cool to be respected for things I’m passionate about,” says Gwen. At the same time, she can get overwhelmed by the attention, which she thinks peaked around the time of her wedding to Bush’s Gavin Rossdale.

It’s hard to blame people for being so interested in Gwen and Gavin. After all, they’re talented, successful, fantastic-looking, and – it’s clear – very much in love. When they were introduced in 1996, Gwen liked Gavin immediately. “He looked so familiar to me,” she says. “There was something about him. The first thing I said to him was, ‘You’ve got gorgeous eyes.’” By the end of the night, Gavin had told Gwen that she was gorgeous, too.

After he asked her to marry him on New Year’s Day 2002, Gwen enlisted a friend, Christian Dior designer John Galliano, to make her gown. “Gwen is an old-fashioned romantic at heart,” explains Galliano. “We share a deep respect for tradition, yet also a love of breaking with convention. We wanted the effect to be dreamy, with a contemporary twist.” The pink and ivory dress he created – as well as Gwen’s wedding ring, a wide platinum (of course!) band paved with diamonds and top with a heart-shaped stone set inside interlocking Gs – is dazzling, totally romantic, and extremely cool, just like Gwen herself.

Even the fact that she hasn’t seen Gavin much since their second wedding – they had twin ceremonies in London and LA, with a honeymoon in between – can’t rattle Gwen’s newlywed bliss. “When we got married,” she says, “we promised we would be there for each other. So it’s cool if we’re apart now; we’re going to be together forever. I’m totally with him in my heart.” Still, Gwen does look forward to being with Gavin – and not just in her heart – when No Doubt finishes their tour. As for what else she’ll do, she’s happy to keep he options wide open. “One of the benefits of the band’s success is that we don’t have to think too far ahead,” she says. “I get to enjoy what I’m doing right now.”

In the fall, Gwen is launching a clothing line she’s designing with her friend and stylist Andrea Lieberman. They’re been collaborating on Gwen’s look for a few years – “She totally streamlined me,” says Gwen, “because to me, there’s no such thing as too much” – and suddenly it just felt like the right time to strike out on their own. “We were already making lots of my clothes,” she says,” and we have so much fun working together, so why not?” They’ve named the line L.A.M.B, which was what Gwen called her dearly departed little Lhasa apso (in “Platinum Blonde Life,” she sings, “Where did my lamb go? I feel as empty as a widow”). It’s also an endearment she reserves for her best friends and an acronym that “has different meanings, none of which I’m ready to reveal.”

When I ask if she’s planning a J.Lo-style in-store assault – logo sweatsuits, rhinestone-studded denim, signature perfume – Gwen says no. “This is truly my look,” she says. “It’s going to be based on everything I’ve ever worn, from my first punker pants to the present.” It will be a collection of pieces that, when put together just so, will subtly convey the Stefani sensibility. Considering Gwen’s fashion history, the line looks set to be a success. After all, she’s inspired flocks of so-called “Gwennabes” since her bindi days, and she always manages to make the most out-there ideas – blue hair, braces, bikini tops as eveningwear – look totally in. But it’s charmingly, utterly Gwen that what excites her most about L.A.M.B is the prospect of presenting the finished pieces to her friends. “To hand them a pair of pants and say, ‘They’re mine; I made them!’” she enthuses.

Gwen’s also looking forward to jump-starting another longtime dream of hers: She tells me she “very badly” wants to be an actress. “I’ve auditioned for lots of things, but always when the band was about to make a record or go out on tour. I think that to do something like acting, which is so difficult, really well, I have to put all my passion into it. I’m ready to focus on it now.” Since one of the “things” she missed out on was Mya’s part as one of the murderous yet glamorous Cell Block Girls in Chicago, expect to see Gwen taking a small role in a prestigious picture like Moulin Rouge, not starring in a big shiny vanity vehicle like Crossroads or Glitter. “I think acting is an art,” she explains,” and auditioning can be terrifying or humiliating, especially since people know who I am… It’s the challenge that drives me to want to do it.”

But don’t worry that all this fashion and film and true romance is going to keep Gwen away from music. It’s her first love, and even though she has no specific plans to make a new album with her band, she knows she’ll always come back to it. “We didn’t plan to make the last one either,” she notes. Plus, she’s very interested in doing more high-profile collaborations like the hits she made recently with Moby and Eve. “Dre told me he’s ready any time I am,” she says happily.

“Sometimes,” Gwen tells me, “it seems like good things just happen all around me.” She might be selling her own powers a little short – even her friend Galliano insists that Gwen is “very much in control of her destiny” – but it’s easy to understand her point. Because she didn’t expect to be living what she calls a “platinum blonde life,” the scenery can be, at times, a little baffling. But her excitement and energy are truly infectious. “It’s crazy,” she says, shaking her head. “Sometimes I have to remember to keep walking forward, because it all blows my mind.”

It was a nice day for a pink wedding when rock royals Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale made it official in a regal, romantic London affair. Here, every perfect detail.

Her hair has been almost every color imaginable: pink, blue, even black streaked platinum. She’s worn bindis, multicolored braces and the occasional bra over her shirt. So it came as no shock when No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, at her September 14 wedding to longtime love Gavin Rossdale of the band Bush, entered London’s St. Paul’s church in a white-and-pink silk faille gown designed by friend John Galliano for Christian Dior. “She looked very beautiful,” Galliano told Us. But for the self-described “girly-girl,” that tweak on tradition was the event’s one and only (aside from Rossdale’s beloved puli dog, Winston, sitting by his master during the ceremony; “Winston enjoyed himself,” Rossdale told Us). From the over-sized pink roses to the hour long ceremony, everything about the affair was a full-blown, full-on fairytale. “She cried, he cried and so did the dog,” says Galliano. In fact, at one point during the vows, Stefani, 32, was fighting back so many tears that one of the officiants – a Church of England vicar who was the 34-year-old Rossdale’s religious-studies teacher as a child – gently urged, “Come on, you’ve got to say it.”

The tears were surely those of joy – and perhaps relief, considering how long the road to matrimony had been for these two rock royals. With six years of on-again, off-again dating, a nine-month engagement and countless transatlantic flights behind them (she lives in LA; he in London), the couple at long last decided on Rossdale’s hometown for their 130-guest affair. The eclectic attendees included families (she has three siblings; he has one), bandmates, actor Jonny Lee Miller (Angelina Jolie’s first husband) and – what else? – a transvestite named Marilyn.

The Big Day

The festivities kicked off on Thursday, three days before the actual “I do’s,” when the couple invited guests for drinks at Rossdale’s $2.3 million five-story Primrose Hill house. Afterward, the party moved to the Feng Sheng Princess, a swank Chinese restaurant that has long been a favorite of Stefani’s and Rossdale’s (they reserved the space just two weeks earlier). Between bites of sea bass (Rossdale fed his bride-to-be with chopsticks), guests gave speeches as Stefani bounced a niece on her knee. “Thank you all so much for coming to my wedding,” Stefani told guests. “I feel so emotional!” One guest recalls a toast made by a No Doubt member: “When we first discovered Gwen was going out with a British rocker, we were really disappointed and thought he’d be a real poser,” said the bandmate. “It turned out they were perfect for each other. Gavin is the cat’s cream.” At night’s end, Stefani announced, “It’s my orders that all teenagers go dancing after this!” Around 12:30 a.m., the lovebirds were spotted outside Kabaret, a local hotspot.

At 11 a.m. the next day, the couple hit St. Paul’s for a rehearsal. Meanwhile, at Home House, a private club nestled in a town house, the staff geared up for the wedding reception. A $23,000 blue-and-cream tent had already been filled with more than a dozen illuminated ficus trees and hundreds of white candles. Waiters were scheduled in 12-hour shifts so guest could party from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. “It’s going to be a great occasion,” Douglas Rossdale, Gavin’s dad and a retired doctor, told Us before hand. “I don’t have a role in the wedding. I’m just going to enjoy it.”

On Saturday morning, Rossdale and friends stepped into the Queens, one of the groom’s favorite pubs; Stefani’s longtime hairstylist Danilo and Galliano reported for duty at Home House, where Stefani had slept the previous night (keeping the British custom, the couple didn’t see each other the night before). At the church, two bouncers ensured guests had the black-and-silver invitation. The courtyard, transformed by Sophie Muller, the director of seven No Doubt videos, had trees adorned with roses, hydrangeas and silver stars. Pink roses rimmed the doorway, which was topped with two silver Gs for their names.

Then shortly after 3 p.m., Rossdale, his dog, Winston, and his six groomsmen – three of whom shared the best-man title – emerged from a silver Mercedes van in dark suits and sunglasses. Even Winston was dolled up. “He had his hair done and had a lei of flowers,” Bone, Rossdale’s bodyguard, told Us. But when church bells rang at 5 p.m. – the official start time – the bride was nowhere in sight. “[Rossdale] wasn’t nervous,” a groomsman told Us. “He knew she had a big dress.” Bagpipers passed time as everyone waited… and waited. When designer Galliano finally strolled in 45 minutes later, it was a sign the bride was on her way.

At long last, a 1970 black-and-cobalt-blue Rolls-Royce drove up. Breathtaking in her one-shoulder gown, the bottom blossoming from white into camellia pink, “Gwen was a stunning bride,” Danilo later told Us. “She looked fabulous.”

The bride and her father, part-time folk musician Dennis Stefani, walked down the aisle to “Here Comes the Bride.” Three clergy members presided, including a Catholic priest to represent the bride’s faith. “It was beautiful,” one gushed to Us. “They had traditional vows, [but] there was no ‘obey,’ just ‘to protect.’ ” At the reception, guests dined under the tent on risotto with saffron and bone marrow, spaghetti with octopus and venison. Later, four DJs spun 1970s and ’80s funk and dance music, including “Best of My Love.” In what one witness called “a very LA move,” arrivals checked in with a bouncer armed with a list. (That list included no-show Macy Gray, who had been expected to bring up to 10 people.)

The Courtship

The path to the altar wasn’t always scattered with rose petals. In fact, anyone who’s ever listened to No Doubt knows Stefani’s sometimes tortured love history, from her seven-year relationship with bandmate Tony Kanal to her Rossdale roller coaster. The five-foot-six Stefani met the six-foot-one Rossdale in 1995 when her band opened for his. In many ways, they were opposites. Stefani was raised in a conservative home in Orange County, California, where she was a piccolo-playing, churchgoing teen. Rossdale, raised in London by his aunt after his parents divorced when he was 11, was a Sid Vicious fan who was nearly expelled from boarding school; by 17 he was running with a wild, cross-dressing crowd.

But Gwen and Gavin had chemistry – if not geography – on their side. From the start, theirs was a daunting transatlantic romance. “The only reason we’ve been successful is we’ve been able to afford it, first of all,” Stefani has said of their plane trips. Rossdale’s reputation as a chick magnet didn’t help. “I know who those girls are and know exactly what goes on backstage,” Stefani once said. “I wish I had a little leash to walk Gavin around.”

Since their relationship began, Rossdale has been linked to All Saints’ Nicole Appleton (now engaged to Oasis’ Liam Gallagher) and the Corrs’ Andrea Corr. “I caught you/ Your hands are red/ Now I’m your broken detective,” Stefani sang in “Detective,” on last year’s Rock Steady, which some suspected referred to Rossdale’s Corr tryst.

On New Year’s Day 2002, Rossdale finally popped the question. “I definitely wanted to do it the right way, so I took my time,” he told Us. He purchased the diamond ring in Amsterdam; Stefani later had Beverly Hills jeweler Neil Lane make it smaller. “She didn’t like the idea that the ring would have to be cut,” Lane tells Us. “So I designed a tighter-fitting eternity band to hold [it].” Rossdale to Us in April, “I based my life on not being traditional. I guess [getting married] is my most traditional move yet! But that’s cool. I haven’t looked back.”

What now?

With no announced plans for a honeymoon, Stefani and Rossdale will re-rejoice on September 28 in LA at a larger reception (sources say it will be at the home of Interscope president Jimmy Iovine). Expected guests include Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston (whose wedding Stefani and Rossdale attended) and Carson Daly. “We didn’t want to impose on anyone… so we decided to do it in both places,” Rossdale has said. But it looks like there’s no end to the bi-continental commute. On October 9, No Doubt starts a two-month U.S. tour. Of course, Stefani may have plans for an even bigger project. “I’m 32 and I think about babies a lot,” she has said. “I’ll make one more album and then get pregnant.” Even if that doesn’t happen right away, friends are psyched about the collaboration, in whatever form. “If Gavin and Gwen don’t make beautiful music together,” one guest toasted, “I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Gwen’s Big Day Details

The Veil – A long, hand-embroidered silk tulle veil with antique lace, designed by Galliano. Like the gown, the lower part of the veil was rose pink on the bottom.

The Hair – Stylist Danilo tells Us that Stefani’s do, a variation of a braided chignon, was designed to be “fantastically bridal.” He used about eight jeweled pins, some of which he designed with Dior. “I got really busy with the diamonds,” Danilo says. “I love to put millions of dollars in women’s hair.”

The Shoes – Galliano designed special pink platforms for Stefani.

The Bridesmaids’ Dresses – The off-the-shoulder frocks designed by Galliano, were cut on the bias in pink chiffon.

The Flowers – Pink roses (both silk and real) on the church gates, hydrangeas in the church courtyard, red-rose center-peices on the tables.

The Wheels – Rossdale arrived in a silver Mercedes van. Stefani showed up in a black-and-cobalt-blue 1970 Rolls-Royce. Guests were transported in classic red British double-decker buses.

The Cake – Galliano described the four-tiered, three-foot-high cake trimmed with roses as “pink and Gwen.”

The Logo – Stefani and Rossdale created a custom logo of two Gs for the menu and invitations.

The Music – Bagpipes galore and DJs spinning ’70s and ’80s dance tunes.

Gwen’s Other Love: John Galliano!

When Gwen Stefani and John Galliano first met at the 1997 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards, the trend-setting singer was a nominee for the Most Fashionable Artist award and the rebel designer had recently taken over at Christian Dior. She lost the award to Fiona Apple but won a fan in the Brit. Stefani was soon spotted front row at his Paris shows and in his wild designs at the Grammy Awards. Her hand-painted silk tulle wedding gown was, of course, their ultimate collaboration. “[It] matched her personality,” Galliano tells Us. “Gwen has an incredible sense of style. She is a real contemporary icon.”

Libra & Scorpio

“Gwen is a Libra. She’s all about the balance and scales, and I’m usually bouncing around and on fire. But she carries a special fire extinguisher to keep me down.” – Rossdale on Stefani

Us astrologer Cheryl Lee Terry says,
“This marriage has legs. For Gavin [born October 30, 1967] she is stability. For Gwen [born October 3, 1969], he provides emotional security.” Terry predicts that their first year of marriage will be “their most difficult year” but that “They’re going to have children within two years.”